The alleged Night Stalker rapist's campaign of "sickening and depraved" attacks on the elderly is the "stuff of nightmares", a court has heard.

The motivation behind Delroy Grant's alleged rapes and burglaries between 1992 and 2009 is difficult to understand by normal standards, said Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting.

Delivering his closing speech to a jury at Woolwich Crown Court in London, Mr Laidlaw said Grant's "highly-skilled" series of attacks "really is the stuff of nightmares and the sort of case which keeps us all awake at night".

His defence that his ex-wife framed him after storing his semen in 1977 "simply defies belief", Mr Laidlaw added.

"If you decide this defendant is the person responsible for these attacks, then his approach to this trial is a further demonstration of his arrogance and deeply-flawed nature."

Grant never considered the impact his torment would have on his victims, Mr Laidlaw said.

He said: "In the last years of their lives, did he ever stop to think about their families? The answer is never, he did not.

"What could have motivated the perpetrator to commit these offences is difficult, if not impossible, to understand by normal standards."